Travel, Football, Bollywood
“Be fearless in the pursuit if what sets your soul on fire“
What would a life be without passion? The kind of passion that sets your soul on fire? Have you ever felt it? What makes your heart beat that much faster? Makes you smile from ear to ear? Scorpios are very passionate, when we believe in something, when we have a goal, when we need to make it happen – the passion shows!
Football
You may find it crazy when I say my highs and lows in life, some of the biggest highs and lowest lows have come because of football! Now, some would say, I don’t have children and I have not experienced x, y, z, and yes that may be the case but for me football is pure passion! I am also writing this at a time Liverpool are on for winning a league title after 30 years and we are seen today as equals to anyone and not under dogs. So, yes, I am a little excitable! To be honest, I find it hard to understand people who don’t have any passion around any sport! I fell in Love with Liverpool when I was a child, at the time Liverpool was the top team in England, maybe even in Europe and hence the world so it wasn’t hard, especially when all the boys at school were Liverpool fans – Yes, most likely the reason why I started supporting Liverpool all those years ago. Who says there should be a logical reason 🙂 Anyway, Liverpool it was and always has been, football is like a religion and the club you support is the chosen one – you don’t change clubs! These days, too many glory supporters, it’s just wrong!
Strangely, my parents were ok with my sister and I having posters of Footballers on our wall, but not Bollywood actors! Hmmmm .. Anyway, 1986 was a very special year, Liverpool had won the league and it was FA Cup Final Day, the last game of the season as English clubs were banned in Europe at the time and after the final the World Cup was coming up, Mexico 86. I knew of matches before, but 1986 somehow became the time football became a part of me, my soul and in the 1986 FA Cup final Liverpool were to play Everton, Mersyside neighbours and rivals, so lots of excitement. Final’s were always at Wembley Stadium, so really close to where I grew up, but going to a football match those day was a faraway dream, so watching on TV it was – we have that final recorded and god knows how many times we have watched it, today if you were to see matches those days they were so and maybe boring – pre back pass rules! I used to have a bit of a crush on Gary Lineker at the time, it was the poster on the wall, no he was not a Liverpool player, actually played for Everton but in my defence was a star player for England! Liverpool went onto winning the FA Cup final and hence doing the domestic double in 1986 and then the World Cup got underway and now I really could support Gary Lineker, he had an amazing world cup, I still remember the screaming, shouting and jumping the night he scored a hatrick and we qualified for the next round and I also remember the infamous “Hand of God, head of Maradona” – Why? Why does this always happen with England? We were heart broken and definitely one of the lows, with a little tear too!
Another low was 1989, once again Liverpool should have won the league, but it was tight this year and goal difference would matter – yes those days we won the league all the time!!! My sisters wedding was in full swing, so home was chaotic and on top of that I had my GCSE exams going on as well, if memory serves me correctly Russian exam was next day! So, as I said, house was chaotic, match was on in the evening and we had lots of people around and all kinds of stuff was going on! Liverpool didn’t even need a win, we were playing Arsenal away and all we needed to ensure was that we don’t loose by 2 goals – easy right? Wrong! We almost did it, I mean Ian Rush even had a record that whenever he scored we didn’t loose, in that year, in the last few minutes Michael Thomas scored, we lost and my cousin, my sister and I are stunned, hurt and on the verge of crying maybe and an aunt looks at us and says “Why are you so upset, your parents are still alive!”. Emotions, not everyone understands, but over time my parents have gotten to understand more and being a family of Liverpool fans where even my brother and nephews have all been bullied into supporting Liverpool we can be a very happy family or a family that is good at ignoring the whole subject altogether! Even my bhabhi has started to care, a little ☺️
It wasn’t meant to be! 1989 was a tragic year for Liverpool with the Hillsborough disaster as well, I remember I was out shopping with my mother and driving home to watch the semi final on TV when on the radio they are started talking about crown trouble and after what happened in Heysel a few years earlier, my first reaction was oh no, not again! Contrary to public opinion, not all English fans are hooligans, we love are football, we are passionate about our team! When I got home, my sister had the TV on and the scenes of TV were shocking, did not quite know or understand what was happening, at some point I just remember the fence being brought down and fans spilling onto the pitch, many of them finding it hard to breathe, I remember an ambulance driving onto the pitch! All of this is something you never forget, pictures etched in your memory forever! 96 fans died that day and after 30 years there is a case going on now – negligence of the police etc, Liverpool football club has always stood by the families, the fans were not to blame, they just went to watch a football match of the team they loved, but 96 never came home! One of them was Steven Gerrards’s cousin, Steven Gerrard who would later go on to be an all time legend and captain fantastic.
Steven Gerrard, is my favourite player, yes I like Paolo Maldini for completely different reasons (best looking man ever!), Gerrard was Liverpool through and through, loyal to the club, a leader and someone who could carry the whole team on his shoulders and many times he did. Since 1990 Liverpool with all its rich history has never seen the same levels of success, other teams which I do not wish to mention (Yes, I don’t like them), took the mantle and with SKY getting into TV rights, Liverpool slide happened when big money was coming into football! Being an underdog, getting lucky, we saw it all and in 2005 we found ourselves in the Champions League final and we had to play AC Milan, and guess what Paolo Maldini was the captain of AC Milan! We had won the UEFA cup a couple of seasons earlier, but this was the Champions League and OMG! We all gather, nervous excitement for sure, underdog remember, match starts and guess what, within a couple of minutes Milan scores and who else but Mr Gorgeous himself, Paolo Maldini and he’s a defender, what is he doing scoring?! It was a horrible first half, we were all dejected going in at half time loosing 3-0, it was over right? Well, 2nd half starts and at that point we are just thinking how much worse can it get? That was the day Steven Gerrard was my HERO, he drove the team, his passion, his energy, his commitment, 3-1, 3-2 and then 3-3!!! The match ended 3-3! Everyone thought my brother was having a seizure the way he was lying on the floor and screaming when Liverpool equalised. Somehow, Liverpool scored 3 goals, we didn’t concede any and so now extra time which remained goalless and therefore it meant a penalty shootout!
Thanks to England, penalty shoot outs and I have a love hate relationship, I have seen England loosing too many times, Euro 96 in England or World Cup 90, heart break! Luckily in the 2018 World Cup, England finally have won a penalty shoot – imagine the euphoria! Anyway, back to 2005 and the Champions League penalty shootout and my phobia, my heart was going mad! I couldn’t watch it! My family will tell you I’m useless, even today when there is a penalty or if it’s really tight in the last few minutes I walk away from the TV and start doing something else to keep me busy and I wait to hear the reaction of everyone! Terrible I know, but it’s what football does to me!
Unlike Cricket, I have never been to any final of a football match to see it live and I hope one day that dream will also come true! Live matches are just different, my first football match was in 1994, a good friend of mine was a Spurs fan and Liverpool were going to be in town and he asked if I wanted to go, I had never been to a match before and ofcourse I wanted to go but the question was how to tell my parents – yes I had graduated, but somehow I still had a fear of telling my parents I wanted to go to a football match! Well, I did tell them and I was given all kinds of advice, don’t saying anything, just sit quietly etc etc and a lot of this was valid as we were sitting on the home side, ie. Where all the Spurs fans are supposed to be sitting! Four of us had gone, 1 being a Spurs fan and 3 being Liverpool, I was the only girl and I left it to the guys to take care of me, I had never seen so many police on horses and just so many people in close proximity before – living in Mumbai, no big deal anymore, the number of people I mean! So, we are sitting on the Spurs side, we ae not wearing Liverpool colours and like everyone had told me I was sitting quietly and Liverpool score so you would expect unhappy people around you? Well, no, the whole stand, felt like the whole stand, got up and started jumping up and down! Undercover Liverpool fans, just like me – yay! Nothing makes me jump with excitement as a football match!
I have had the chance to go to a number of matches at various stadiums, watching Liverpool and England matches and yes there are some amazing stadiums, but nothing and I mean NOTHING can beat Anfield! Each time I got to Anfield and you here “You’ll Never Walk Alone” when the players come onto the pitch – I promise you there is nothing like it, you get a sense of it on TV, but live in the stadium, OMG! It’s magic, I get goose bumps thinking about it and apart from my family, maybe one of the things I miss most about the UK is the accessibility to go and watch football matches live. Went to my 1st match at Anfield with the same group of friends, going to Anfield means early morning starts, driving 3 hours each way and coming back late, so wins are good, but driving back after loosing – well you can imagine! Fortunately, I have seen Liverpool winning on all occasions when at Anfield, apart from 1 and that 1 match was us loosing to SCUM, aka Manchester United! I hate loosing to Manchester United, but that day in the stadium even though we were loosing and loosing badly (3-1!!!), the atmosphere was incredible, the United fans would start singing something and all the Liverpool fans, in unison would start chanting “You’re Shit, You’re Shit!!!” and we were the ones that were loosing! It was a WOW moment and something I will never forget.
Oh, by the way, my YNWA tattoo – I love it! Liverpool really is core to me and yes I have had strange conversations over the years, in England how did this Indian girl know so much about football!? And even now, you don’t drink alcohol, you don’t smoke, you talk about spirituality and you love football and even have a tattoo – how? There is something to it and I don’t have any answers, maybe some past life connection and one day maybe I will figure it out!
Travel
When and how this became a passion I do not know, we used to do summer trips around the UK and even Europe as a family and every few years we would all even fly to India! What have I found is that home gives me comfort and energy and travels have been rejuvenating, you see new places, you meet new people and above all you appreciate how beautiful this world is and as humans we have so much more similarities than differences! When moving to India, I decided to make a goal for myself that I would travel to all states of India! I’m still working on that, 7 states remain to be done and as they say InshAllah will be done some day! Having lived in India for 14 years now, I have been too many corners of India, my most favourite being Ladakh, I truly do not believe there would be any other place on earth that could compare. The size of that place and the rugged masculine beauty is beyond imagination. What has created this travel bug? The needs of a lost soul? Maybe! Maybe my mothers influence and ultimately I think I like to indulge myself – seeing India in all its glory and indulging myself with luxuries whilst doing it! I have even done trips alone which a few years ago were beyond my capability, however with some inspiration from my younger sister and the need to escape claustrophobic Bangalore I even started and enjoyed trips with me, myself and I and have continued to do solo trips. Some of my travels have included religious sites, Benares is a favourite. I have been to temples where I have paid entrance fees – VIP passes mean less queuing, so does that mean God is closer to the rich or those who can afford more? I have been to temples and denied entry, supposedly because I am not a Hindu! Religion is very personal, I do not need temples, Ladakh was actually the most spiritually uplifting moment of my life in India! When I do my travels around India and come back to my apartment I always refer to it as coming Home. When I go to England, where I have my family I always say I am going home, on returning from England to India I also say I am coming home.
Solo travels have been brilliant! Doing what you want, when you want and how you want! In 2010 I think, I wanted to go to Benares (aka Varanasi) and no one I knew at the time was interested and so I thought just do it! I have travelled with family and friends too and a lot of the places I talk about below are with a friend who would come from the US and we looked to explore a new part of India each time so I could cross of a state.
My Top 10 in India travels
1. Ladakh – Have been blessed by make 2 visits and may even go again someday, many years ago whilst watching a Hindi movie called “Dil Se”, I remember some of the scenes and when reading the titles I read some place called Ladakh, I had no clue what and where that was. When I moved to India, a trip was being organised by an Expat club and I took the opportunity to travel with a group of people I didn’t know – quite adventurous for me, those days anyway! I was in complete awe of the place, the sheer size of the mountains, after which everything else is a hill, the colours, the roads, the sea water at 15,000 feet and the huge army presence and you could even talk to soldiers who were happy to share stories and just have some hindi speaking people around. I think it was the first time I realised that India is at war every day, our borders need protecting and city life is like living in bubbles, I remember coming back to work saying we need military service! 9 years on, when I went again for sure you see the commercialisation, Bollywood has been in town for many movies and you even see scenes enacted at Pang Gong Lake, as Krity said, “Only You Gujjus!!!”. A bunch of men, standing in a line by Pangong lake, ready to bendover and smack their bum – why!!!! Ladakh is still incredible and a must visit, locals have taken over many of the operations so you don’t have the army presence everywhere which yes, is good for the local community but in some ways I missed the army interaction.
2. Rajasthan – Absolutely beautiful, have visited many times and I think Udaipur is actually my favourite city in Rajasthan, it really is so pretty and many years ago did get to stay at the Lake Palace for night and that was totally magical. For my parents 50th anniversary we also did the 7 day trip on the Palace on Wheels which was an incredible experience and high recommended. During this trip, we discovered Chittorghar, not on the standard itinerary but definitely worth visiting to see the sites and hear the stories. Rajasthan is full of forts, places and stories, lots of stories and sometimes you can let your imagination run away and just feel living in a palace, running up and down the small corridors in your ultra glamorous outfits in the years gone by. Ofcourse, I would have been a princess 🙂
3. Benares – My first solo trip was to Benaras, and I absolutely loved it and have been back too. The Ganga Aarti in Benares is enchanting, the Manikarinika Ghat which has funeral pyres burning 24/7 is intense and gives you a reality check! I love spending time on the Ghats, walking along the ghats and sitting and just admiring the flow of the Ganga! Yes, I have been to the Kashi Vishvanath temple, but the chaos there never leaves me inspired, I do love the little alley ways though and if in Benares you have to buy a saree and eat a paan – right?
4. Kerala – Lush! It’s so green! Kerala is quite unique, peaceful serenity and the synchronised ayurvedic massages were incredible. One trip to Kerala was with a few friends from Bangalore, we used to work together and we had rented a huge house on the coast, food would get cooked for us and we even had a sheesha, which was supposedly non-tabacco! Well its wasn’t, so you imagine how giggly I and another friend were .. Ooops!
5. Amritsar – Some Paneer and Dasl Makhini at Kesar ka Dhabha, calmness in Golden temple, history of Jalianwala Bagh and the energy at Wagah Border, a 3 day trip to Amritsar and you get to do everything!
6. Rishikesh – The force of the Ganga is amazing and I could sit for hours just watching, feeling, thinking and the Ganga raced past me. Not far from Rishikesh is the Ananda Spa which is stunning and was on my to do list and finally crossed off in 2015!
7. Darjeeling & Assam – Chai, Chai, Chai! I do love my chai and so going to the source where my two favouites chais come from had to be done! And if you are going to visit Tea Estates, stay on a Tea estate, Glenburn in Darjeelig is just gorgeous, the concept is so different with the hosts and everyday just being pampered was so lovely! In Assam I was surprised to see how flat it was, I was expecting the hills like Darjeeling for the Tea Estates, but Assam is different and not so picturesque but Kazhiranga National Park was amazing, never seen so many rhinos.
8. Sikkim – Simplicity! I loved the simplicity of Sikkim, walking through little villages, hearing local stories, joining a wedding for tea! Everything was just calm, I also learnt Sikkim only became a part of India in the 1980’s! Indian map history is really amazing.
9. Goa – There is something about Goa, yes its full of tourists, yes it can be all a bid mad, but the beaches, the Arabian sea and just the laid back approach of everyone in Goa is lovely. I have been there many times, even did a roadtrip from Bangalore with a friend to test my new car and have even had the chance to attend a friends wedding.
10. Agra – Last but not least, yes the Taj Mahal is WOW and I like to believe the story ! And actually I loved the stories at Agra Fort even more, on one of my visits heard about Princess Jahanara and thought if I had to change my name, that would be the name I would choose! Agra itself is nothing spectacular, but atleast now the roads leading the Taj Mahal have improved and you get amazing hotels with Taj Views etc.Places I have yet to visit – Kailash, Kedarnath & I want to go back to Dwarika too!
Places I didn’t talk about – Delhi, Mumbai & Bangalore because I have lived in them!
Bangalore – I first moved to Bangalore, it is a very transitional city, with the huge number of corporates based here there has been a constant stream of people I have known. For the first couple of years in India I knew and socialised with many expats, however it became very difficult and emotional as people went back and we became facebook friends! Most of my friends I have met people through work, my best friend is someone I met at work and we somehow connected over a random weekend conversation. I also have one peculiar story of how I met a friend of mine at a bus stop as we waited for two hours to come home, breaking all norms of not talking strangers and even eating a biscuit she offered.
Delhi – Delhi has a soul! I fell in Love with Delhi and really, Delhi almost happened by accident. Sometimes life takes its own course, I have never felt as connected to any city as I have to Delhi – the history, the culture, the greenery – I love absolutely everything about it and some of my favourite people live there and many mornings have been spent walking in Lodhi Garden followed by breakfast at India Habitat Centre with a good friend of mine. I know Delhi gets lots of negative press, rape capital and pollution, but I wish people would see and talk about all the good things this city has to offer – I can see why it’s the capital of India. When family/friends would come and visit, I would expose them to “Jaxa’s Delhi”, I wasn’t there long enough to create a revolution! Yes, who you know in Delhi matters, and I saw it in action too, Sarika is amazing in connecting & networking and making things happen. I also had a lovely landlord, Aslam, and was well taken care of, Delhi always felt safe to me.
Mumbai – The city that was the dream when I was a child and been to numerous times over the years, work finally brought me here. I am living in Bandra and I had to pinch myself – is that really Le Papillion I can see from my bedroom window? Long story, but in my younger days I had written many letters to that address – happens to be the building where Jackie Shroff lives! Mumbai is intense, India is full of people I know, but in Mumbai it just feels like more and the city is just getting taller and taller by the day! The coastline is my saviour in Mumbai and I love walking on Bandstand and Nariman Point. IKEA is a big part of the Mumbai story as well, the stores will open in 20-21, but in the process I have met and made some special friends, Anupi I met during philosophy classes and thanks to her have experienced a very different Mumbai, we have such an interesting connection, it is amazing who you meet and when in life. Someone told me “Mumbai is a very welcoming city.. you will love it” .. yes, it may be, but somehow I left my heart in Delhi.
Places I still need to go to, Kailash, Kedarnath, Srinagar, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Dwarika. And Yes, I still have 7 states to do! Yes, I know Kailash is not in India, but its Shiva’s abode and it’s a place Ravi will take me too! Oh, I have been to Kurukshetra, my bhabhi happens to be from there, it’s not just a mythology .. the Mahabharat really did happen!
Other than India, some of my favourite places in the world would be –
Rio De Janerio – The most spectacular city in the world I have seen, I got to spend 2 weeks there as part of my masters program and I loved the atmosphere, the energy, the people, it was so much fun! The coast was incredible and I wish Mumbai would be more like that, but the way the ocean and the city lived together was WOW!
Cannes – Money, Money, Money, what a place! Beautiful, sophisticated and an orange juice for 1000 rupees! Lovely! Have grown up hearing about the Cannes Film festival, so finally being there was special, even seeing a version of the red carpet J
Rome – Magical, just walk and wherever you walk you will see the most beautiful buildings and monuments! And ofcourse the food, after indian cuisine, Italian has to be the next best and the simplicity with the way they make the pasta and pizza – Yum!
Alaska – Scenery is amazing, got to see sharks but the best part of Alaska was being on a cruise with my parents, not something I had ever done with them before, just the 3 of us! We had time to be and lots of conversation. It was the time I had just gotten a promotion at Target, being a Director was a big deal those days and over dinner when I was talking to the Target India MD he said to me “Your parents must be so proud of you” and I replied “I don’t know actually, we don’t talk about these things”, he went on to tell me that I should ask them and it was in this cruise that I did! I asked and I even got “Yes”, it was like a whole weight had been lifted from my shoulders when I heard that, amazing how something so simple could have such an impact.
Johannesburg – Not sure if I can actually say I have been to Johanesburg, my sister and I basically flew in and went straight to the Wanderers stadium to watch India play Australia in the 2002 World Cup Final! Yes, India lost badly, it was depressing and when Sachin Tendulkar hit the ball vertically up in the air and Glen McGrath was standing, waiting to catch it, it felt like eternity, in slow motion and there was pin drop silence, I was thinking Drop It! Drop it! No one listens to me! India lost, badly, but the next day we got to meet all the players J
Minneapolis (!!!) – Had to have a mention, I have lived there and some of my favourite people in the world live there! Most prominent memory has to be SNOW, or SNOW + COLD! Thank God for the skyways, there would be times I would not go outisde for weeks and my team tried to convince to just go through the revolving door – no chance!
And then there is LONDON, home, I go to London every year, sometimes more than once – it is where my family and it’s my priority that I get good quality time with them even if I don’t get quantity. My parents are getting older so for sure that is a factor, so if that means I go to London and we are all just sitting at home all day I am ok with that! Typically there will be one day I like to venture out into London – I do Love River Thames.
Bollywood
Vinyl records and Video tapes were my introduction to Bollywood! We had a record player at home and my father would listen to songs and in the 1970s when video players were relased I remember the excitement when we all gathered to watch a hindi movie at home! Until then it was trips to the cinema and I was too young to remember the movies in the cinemas, most likely slept through most of the movies! So, a new video recorder and a movie to watch and I think it Amar Akbar Anthony, or was it Sholay? I can’t remember, but I do know it was a Amitabh Bachchan movie, I was hooked, I loved the drama, the love stories, the singing, the dancing, the hero always winning, good over evil and yes I like to believe Amitabh Bachchan even taught me Hindi!
My sister used to buy Stardust and Movie magazines, it was so interesting to read about Stars! Such a different world and seemed so far far away! In the 1980’s I had a huge crush on Jackie Shroff, he had a movie called Hero and he really was my Hero and through these magazines I found his address and there started fan mail and I wrote my first letter to Jackie Shroff and guess what – a few days later I got a reply!! Imagine the excitement, I was only about 12-13 at the time and a total introvert at that! There was a group of us, into hero worship, Yes! sounds very sad these days, but has been a reality for me. Jackie Shroff, Vinod Khanna, Anil Kapoor and Mithun Chakraborty, we knew everything abut them and the 4 of us could spend hours talking about them and on many occasions we did on the way home from school, we would all be writing letters and when my sister was getting married I even remember sending a wedding invitation to Jackie Shroff!
Fast forward a few years, 1999 and something called the internet had happened and all kinds of websites were coming up and somehow I came across www.jackieshroff.com, and since Jackie’s birthday was coming up I thought I sent, what would be a random “Happy Birthday” message and left it at that and to my amazement after some time I get an email saying “Will be in London on such and such date, call me on X number”. Yes – I didn’t believe it either, why would Jackie Shroff mail me? Why would he give me his number? I read the email many times and I even asked my sisters to read it and we decided on the date mentioned no harm in calling the number and then I will know! I know it was a few months since the birthday, month of August and I called the number, not expecting anyone to pick up or hearing some very random message and voice, nonetheless I had butterflies in my stomach as the phone started ringing and after a couple of rings someone picks up the phone and I stutter with a “Hello” and I get a “Hello” back, it really was him! OMG! I was talking to Jackie Shroff! It wasn’t a long conversation, he just told me the hotel he was staying at in Covent Garden and I could go over. I am in a state of shock, my siblings are all excitable and my mother was the party pooper “No, you are not going”, eventually we came to the agreement that I could go with my younger sister and my brother – my bodyguards! As a 12-13 year old, if anyone had said this were to be one of my experiences of life I would have laughed! Anyway, we did go to the hotel, Jackie was there and he was just lovely! The most down to earth and easy person to talk to, I can’t say I remember any of the conversation, he was there for the shooting of Yaadein that I remember!
Fast forward another few years, 2006 and the year I am moving to India and my sister had put a whole book together, topics A..Z and, A being for Americans, C for Cousins, P for Parents, S for Scorpio – you get the drift! Well J was for Jackie Shroff, ofcourse and apart from a couple of pictures there was not message on this page, all other pages had wonderful messages from so many people – it was truly an amazing effort and making it happen in the midst of my brothers big fat indian wedding was quite a task! So, post wedding, its 12th July and with lots of tears all around, we are at the airport, I am about to fly to India, fly to live in India!!! I was really doing it, until then I was so busy with the wedding and just organising various things that I think it only hit me the night before that I am actually moving! Anyway, we are at the airport and I am waiting to check in and I have this book with me and I see my sister coming running towards me “Give me the book, give me the book .. Jackie’s on the same flight, he’s over there, I’m going to ask him to sign it”. Yes, I had decided to fly to Mumbai and spend a couple of weeks in Mumbai before moving to Bangalore, but I had flown to Mumbai many times, how is Jackie on this flight? My sister did get Jackie to sign the book and he actually left his email address too, even on the flight and after landing at Mumbai Airport he had a little chat with me and he even said “If you need anything let me know” and I just smiled “Sure”.
I was 33 at this point, not the crazy fan I was at one point but still the experience was special and whilst in Mumbai I decided to just send Jackie an email thanking him for his kind words and it was lovely seeing him. Once again, I get a reply and this time I even get a mobile number, hmmmm. I’m not a stalker, promise, I was not sending messages everyday but a few months later on his 50th birthday I thought why not just send a birthday message – it’s ok right? I wasn’t expecting a reply, but then next day I got one, it didn’t even say anything just a rose, but with the day I was having at work, it made my day and I replied saying so and after a while it was lunchtime and I had found a place that would do simple sandwiches for me, so I am paying for a sandwich and my phone starts ringing “Jackie Caliing..”, No Way! Yes way, Jackie goes on to tell me that if I’m stressed I should take deep breaths, from my stomach, it really was quite surreal and I even said to him that he really didn’t know I was, to which he replied ofcourse he did and even started talking to me in Gujarati!
Over the years, Bollywood has been a part of life in some way or another – movie all nighters, west end trips, choreographing community performances and above all music, I have grown to love music more than watching movies I guess, when home you will hear music playing more than the tv playing, I do like my mushy music and talking about mush have to talk about Shah Rukh Khan! Anyone who knows me today will tell you I am a SRK fan, which I am, but I never did the crazy things with SRK that I have done with Jackie Shroff! Older and Wiser maybe? Hmmm! SRK for the NRIs was the guy we all wanted to bring home and introduce to our mum! We would want to go to Europe and meet our Raj! We would want to feel the “kuch kuch” or ‘dil to pagal hain”.
When living in Bandra, I was living about 10 minutes walk away from Jackie Shroff and Shah Rukh Khan, weird right? I could see Le Papillon from my bedroom window, god I remember that address with the all the letters I have written! To just think how life works out, I could never have imagined I would be living where the stars do – the world that was far, far away! And yes, I do believe Shah Rukh Khan and I will have a chai some day and have a nice fun conversation, I do like his sense of humour and I have questions about which football team he actually supports! Oh and by the way, I do have a little story about SRK – I said no to dancing with SRK! SRK was in London for a show and at the time in Wembley Arena, people are preselected from the audience to go on stage when actors call people to dance with, so I’m sitting on seat and someone from Wembley Area security came to me asking “Would you like to dance with Shah Rukh Khan?” and I said “No!”!! Why? I was way too shy to go on stage and dance in front of 5-10 thousand people, maybe today I would do it, maybe that’s the opportunity I lost of getting a hug from SRK! We shall see, but it’s a dialogue from his movie and a belief of mine “Agar sachche dil se kuch chaho, puri kayanath .. “, life will happen and we shall see. I remember my father telling my sister and I once that if we had the same kind of devotion to Thakorji as we did to Jackie Shroff and Vinod Khanna, we would find the divine! Today, priorities have changes, but experiences matter and these wise words from my father I always remember!
Picture Abhi Bak Hain 🙂
Story behind the Image .. One of Shivani’s creations, just oozes passion❤️